Cheers Vet John Ratzenberger Joins Whitney Cummings' HBO Comedy Pilot

Let’s raise a glass to this piece of casting news: Cheers alum John Ratzenberger has nabbed a major role in HBO’s comedy pilot A Lot, starring Whitney Cummings.

Inspired by Maureen Dowd’s 2005 book Are Men Necessary?, the half-hour potential series stars Cummings as Amanda, a financially successful woman navigating a world that is complicated by the biological and cultural differences between men and women.

Per our sister site Deadline, Ratzenberger plays Amanda’s father, Gerry, who has a stroke-related medical condition called locked-in syndrome. Though his mind is functioning normally, Gerry cannot speak, move or open his eyes, forcing him to communicate with his daughter and nurse by wiggling his toe.